Dream

Chapter I

                It was a Friday night at the fast food restaurant, where Chaeyoung works as a back-of-the-house worker and Mina serves as a waitress. They are both part-time workers at the restaurant. A lot of people come and go out of the place, it was a busy night indeed. Hours passed, the place fully-packed with people a while ago, felt like a ghost town. It was getting late. Chaeyoung took a look at his phone and it was already 9:50 pm and saw a pop-up notification after but he ignored it. He was almost done with his shift and he has to patiently wait for his girlfriend to complete her shift at the back of the restaurant.

The couple are both working students in their senior year in college at Ateneo de Laoag University, a prestigious private non-sectarian university in the Northern Philippines. Chaeyoung is taking Bachelor of Science in Hotel and Restaurant Management whilst Mina is taking Bachelor of Science in Tourism. They are both scholars at the aforementioned university but were unable to hold the average to get a full scholarship, since they have to work after class hours.

             Son Chaeyoung, already in his 20s, is an intelligent, sweet, family-oriented and the only child of Son Taecyeon and Son Yuri. His father, Taecyeon, is a construction worker who only makes enough money to pay for their monthly bills and to feed his family. His mom, Yuri, on the other hand, is just a plain housewife, who's not allowed to do rigorous activities and is currently admitted at the hospital after being diagnosed with Dilated Cardiomyopathy (DCM), a condition where the heart chambers become enlarged, affecting its ability to pump blood throughout her body. This made Chaeyoung plead his manager to double his shift to help his father earn for his mother's treatments and medicine, even his tuition fees. Unfortunately, his manager didn't approve his plea. Chaeyoung, has an unfortunate life. Since he was young, he has been living from paycheck to paycheck. After school, he has to go visit his mom at the hospital and check on her, then he works himself off to free his family from debt. Having only his optimism, perseverance, his family and his girlfriend kept him going, kept him from giving up on his dream of owning his own restaurant and a better life for his parents, especially his mom.

            Myoui Mina, also in her 20s, is a hardworking and an ambitious girl who dreamt of becoming rich and an easy way out of her life. She's in desperate need of money. At an early age, both of her parents are irresponsibly depending on her and treating her like trash. Her dad is an alcoholic, who works as a jeepney driver and earns enough money to buy his booze. Her mom is a battered housewife and a cleaner on call. She also has 3 siblings. Two of them are high school students, Lia and Yuna, and the other one is Han, who's in primary school.

Chaeyoung's POV

I cannot seem to finish my homework because I haven't checked the notification on my phone. It has been bothering me since the past hour. I almost jumped out of my seat when a familiar scent ran through my nose and someone wrapped her hands around my neck.

"Have I been running inside your mind the whole time? No wonder I'm so tired right now." Mina whispered as she leans her head on my shoulder.

"Haha! You wish-" I scoffed at her.

"YAAA! Pack your things already. I am famished! It's getting late and we have to get to work tomorrow." She interrupted while crossing her arms and pouting her lips then went ahead to 7-eleven. Her whiny ass will be the death of me. I immediately ran and followed her as I held her hand on our way to the convenience store. The place was empty since it was late at night. We roam around the store to find something to eat. We bought cup noodles, 2 sisig rice meals and a bottle of water for us to share. We sat at a table outside the store. As we dig in, I remembered the notification in my phone out of nowhere.

"Babe, have you checked your phone already?" I interrupted her as she was about to take her first bite.

"No, not yet. Why?" she answered.